OREANDA-NEWS. August 28, 2012. Interpipe NTRP, the producer of railway wheels under the KLW brand, has begun pilot production of solid-rolled mechanically treated wheel centers designed specifically for one of the largest car building companies in the CIS, Sinara – Transport Vehicles.

Representatives from Interpipe’s NTRP mill, along with representatives from Ludinovsky locomotive plant (part of Sinara - Transport Vehicles holding) and the national railroad operator UZ Ukrzaliznitsa formed an Inter-Institutional Commission and agreed on pilot production after an analysis of initial production results.

When receiving the initial results, the Inter-Institutional Commission evaluated the level of technical preparation of production, personnel qualification as well as the technical parameters of the products. As a result of the analysis the commission signed an acceptance act for putting the solid-rolled mechanically treated wheel centers into production.

The next stage will be the certification of wheel-centers in the certification system based on Federal Railway Transport (CS FRT). Besides the full control of mechanic characteristics, wheel centers will undergo certification tests on destruction permanent stability, modeling the real conditions of exploitation in the independent test center. If successful with the certification results, the mill will receive the right to supply to the customer the new product type.

Michael Iskov, Director for Railway Wheel Sales at Interpipe said: ‘This is not the first time that Interpipe has developed a new type and size of KLW railway wheel centers according to the client’s specification. In 2009, our specialists developed production of finished mechanically treated wheel centers for the Ludinovsky locomotive plant (part of Sinara – Transport Vehicles holding). During operation our clients evaluated the high performance characteristics of KLW wheel centers that were shown to possess increased durability, reliability and economy. In 2010 Sinara – Transport Vehicles ordered the development of a new type and size of railway wheel centers for locomotives.’